Tag: YA Lit

Books

Book 528: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda – Becky Albertalli

Geoff W

Of course after I saw the trailer for Love, Simon (embedded at the end of this post) I HAD to read the book they adapted it from. Who doesn’t love an awkward teen romance, especially an LGBT one? Seriously, just go watch the trailer so adorkable!

I’m not sure if I’m in love with Simon or in love with Simon’s hopelessness. I’m sad that books like this weren’t around when I was a teenager, but also so incredibly happy that books like this exist for teens! Was this a literary wonder? No. Was this a beautiful coming of age/first love story that anyone could identify with regardless of their sexuality? Yes.

Continue reading “Book 528: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda – Becky Albertalli” →

Books

Book 526: The Season – Jonah Lisa Dyer and Stephen Dyer

Geoff W

This might be the book to have pulled me out of my reading slump! Even if it’s not, I really enjoyed it as visible by my starting it at 8:30pm and finishing it the same night at 12:45am.

I stumbled across this book catching up on blog posts when I saw A.M.B.’s post Five Variations of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice on her blog The Misfortune of Knowing. We all know I love Jane, her birthday is on my calendar – seriously, and I have an entire page dedicated to her here: Austen(esque). So of course, I immediately went to put all of them on hold at my various libraries and this one was available immediately!!

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Bookish Things

Bookish Things September 2017

Geoff W

Since I still haven’t sorted out what I want to do with Culture Corner, I’m sticking this here because it’s both cultural and bookish things. Last night they had a panel at the Boston Public Library titled “Beyond Mr. Darcy: New Markets in Romance” (BPL website).

The three authors Damon Suede, Farrah Rochan and Sarina Bowen were so personable and I just kept feeling like I want to be your friend. I think the best quote of the night was a quote Suede made about one of Bowen’s books he read recently:

“I wept quietly throughout the entire book while having a boner and laughing.”

The only truly disappointing thing about the talk was Suede not straying further from what he said on the podcast I discovered earlier this month: Authorized: Love and Romance. The host of the podcast, Faith Salie who I only know from Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me, interviews romance authors about writing sex scenes and romance novels in general.

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Books

Book 517: The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet – Bernie Su and Kate Rorick

Geoff W

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

That counts as a review right?

There’s no real reason to review this book – I mean I loved it, but I also loved the YouTube series – see below for a link GO WATCH IT NOW! There’s a link to the playlist at the end of this post. Seriously, forget my review go get sucked into the drama that is Pride and Prejudice reimagined as a master’s thesis project in the form of a vlog: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. I mean it was the FIRST digital series to win an Emmy. AN EMMY people—that’s like legit.

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Bookish Things

Bookish Things August 2017

Geoff W

I promise I’m trying to find things that aren’t just Jane Austen related, but I guess when I read so much Jane Austen and love so much of what is produced around her it’s inevitable. I have a decent balance this week between Jane Austen and non-Jane Austen. I think it’s 50/50 this week.

I’ve been trying to make an effort recently (which I’ve made before) to read more long-form pieces (including book reviews). A lot of these pieces end up coming from The New Yorker and I noticed they spell any word that has a double vowel like coöperate or reëlect with a diaeresis, NOT an umlaut. This is a great brief article from The New Yorker about why the uses diareses—in essence to signal to non-English speakers that the word is co-operate and not coop-erate. Continue reading “Bookish Things August 2017” →